A Year in the Life of a Colonial Land

Jamaica: The Council meets in what’s left of Port Royal. The Richard and Sarah, a merchant ship captained by Thomas Stubbs, is impressed for naval duty in the wake of the earthquake under the command of John Marshall. Of the two naval vessels stationed at Port Royal, one, the Swan, was destroyed in the earthquake and the other, the Guernsey, was out cruising and has not yet arrived back in port, so there is a desperate need for ships for official duties and there is no protest at the impressment of private vessels. The councilors also proclaim that any goods stolen in the looting that followed the earthquake be immediately restored to their rightful owners, with receivers appointed to oversee the process and adjudicate disputes, and that Nicholas Lawes and John Bourden secure provisions to distribute to the poor in their precincts, which have been hit especially hard.

Meanwhile, in London, William Beeston is appointed the new governor of Jamaica.

New Mexico: Around 9:30 am Francisco de Anaya Almazán, the provincial official who reported to Governor Vargas the previous day about the investigation being conducted by the local Franciscans, receives a message from Joaquín de Hinojosa, the president in capite of the Franciscan mission in the province, asking him to come to the church in his hometown of San Lorenzo for a meeting. When Anaya arrives at the church, he goes to the cell of the local priest, Antonio de Acevedo, and finds Hinojosa and Francisco Corvera, the recently appointed apostolic notary who has been conducting the investigation, along with Acevedo. Acevedo asks Anaya if he knows that he is excommunicated. Anaya responds that if he is excommunicated he will obey the order, and if he has erred in any way he asks for mercy. He then asks Hinojosa why he has been excommunicated. Hinojosa responds that it is because he violated the secrecy of the confessional by telling the governor about the investigation.

Anaya says that he will tell the governor about this excommunication order, and Hinojosa says that that is his right and that, although he has already given the order to Acevedo to publicize the excommunication, he will postpone the publication until Anaya speaks to the governor.

Anaya immediately goes to Governor Vargas and tells him what happened, and the governor apologizes for putting him in this situation and tells him to report back to him if Acevedo does publicize the excommunication so he can come up with an appropriate solution.